Google TV Is a Tough Sell Among Would-Be Partners

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO

Google Inc. is launching a campaign to line up TV networks' support for its new Google TV software, but many remain reluctant to partner with a service they believe encroaches on their turf.

The service will allow people to watch and search cable, satellite and Web programming—as well as access regular Web pages—through TVs and set-top boxes that incorporate new Google software. The first devices, made by Sony Corp. and Logitech International SA, are due out this fall, marking another tug-of-war between tech companies eager for new content and media companies worried about giving it away.

In recent weeks, Google has met with officials of TV networks including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to encourage them to work with the service, according to people familiar with the matter. Content owners, though, are skeptical that Google can provide a business model that would compensate for potentially cannibalizing TV owners' existing broadcast businesses.

Google executives are pushing hard to convince content owners to share data about their video websites to make it easier for Google to search and display their shows in blended TV-Web listings, these people said. When a user searches for a show like ABC's "Desperate Housewives," for instance, Google's software will list episodes scheduled to air on TV and airing at that moment, along with episodes and other related content online.

From Google's perspective, more data will help it improve that search function.

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While Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and a range of other companies offer ways to watch some content, like TV shows and movies, over the Web through hardware connected to traditional TVs, Google TV would go further. The Google software aims to play any video that runs anywhere on the Web, from clips on YouTube to full-length TV episodes that media companies distribute on their own sites. That open pipe has some media companies worried that their content will get lost amid a range of Web content, including pirated clips, according to people familiar with the matter.

Google's push could backfire: Some media companies are discussing whether they should take steps to block their Web video from playing on certain devices, which is technically possible.

Google also wants content owners to adapt their Web video for larger screens. The Internet giant wants some TV-owned websites redesigned so that they display better on a bigger screen, with larger frames for the video and less text, say people familiar with Google's road show.

Anthony Soohoo, a senior vice president at CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS Corp., said the company is interested in exploring opportunities with "potential partners who value our content" and a "key next step is gaining an understanding of Google's business model for the product and how it relates back to content owners such as CBS."

A Google spokesman said the company is "excited to work with partners to help them reach more users through the Web."

Google executives haven't yet figured out a business model around the listings feature, according to people familiar with the matter, who say they are waiting to generate usage first.

People familiar with the situation say Google has talked to Viacom Inc., which owns networks including MTV and Nickelodeon; Walt Disney Co., which owns networks including ABC and ESPN; General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, which owns networks including NBC and USA, and News Corp., which owns networks including Fox and FX. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.

Google TV—announced in May—is an early grab at a potentially big market. As its Web-search business matures, Google is eyeing the $70 billion U.S. TV-ad market as a source of new revenue. Google already sells online video ads, a business it believes could expand if Internet video gains a new audience in the living-room. To generate revenue from Google TV, it also could integrate its TV ad-brokerage business.

The market for Web-through-TV devices has been small, in part because the services have been difficult to set up and had relatively little content. A new generation of services, Google TV among them, aim to make it easier and to offer more content.

Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., is likely to have more luck securing content from smaller online video sites eager to get their content promoted. Online video site Howcast Media Inc. said it is already onboard with its how-to videos.

Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com